WAYFARING WRITTEN EVALUATION

Written Evaluation

By Callum OHara
INTRODUCTION
In this PowerPoint I will be discussing four main questions:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages
To add to this I will also be discussing how my target audience has responded to the trailer
and evaluating their views and opinions. Throughout this presentation I will be giving my
thoughts and opinions on these questions, whilst also evidencing both the work I have done
and the point I wish to discuss. For example, I will not just be stating that I perhaps chose to
use dark lighting in once scene; instead, I will annotate a screenshot of a frame within my film
trailer itself to show exactly what I mean by the light used and the connotations it gives to the
audience.
QUESTION 1

In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
 TITLES
This is the title that we decided to use at the beginning of our film. It was taken from our
storyboards and touched up using Photoshop to create a professional standard image, one
which would not look out of place in our film trailer.

This is a convention of film trailers as it informs the audience of the age rating of the film.
Without this, potential viewers may be put off going to the cinema to watch the film in case
they are turned away at the ticket stand due to not being old enough this is something I have
spoken about in more detail in my blog, but to summarise those particular points, this is a
feature of film trailers that is important to include as it is expected from the audience, but it
doesnt add much to the film trailers itself.

However, we decided that we would not be completely stick to the usual conventions of film trailers and their age ratings. In our trailer, we decided that we
would be slightly more original in the fact that we used an unconventional approach to our age rating. We used the shot of our age rating from our trailer
and touched it up using Photoshop this gave us the opportunity to portray a shot which is seemingly created by a child, highlighting how we have
subverted the genre by using a child as the main actor. Breaking this convention gave the audience a much better idea about the theme we are trying to
portray with our film trailer.

Other trailers seem to all show this same BBFC rating shot, leading me to believe that we have created something entirely original. This means that not
only have we broke conventions of other real media texts, but we have actually put ourselves on the forefront of the emerging post-modern media
landscape as we are possibly the first production team to create a pastiche of this standard convention of film trailers.

Looking into other film trailers, they often do stick with the standard BBFC film rating certificate; however, as long as this is shown during the actual
screening of the film the producers of a film are completely open to creating their own film rating animation.
 LOCATION - HOSPITAL
This shot shown one of the locations that we filmed out film trailer in. For the scenes where we had
to portray a modern day children's asylum, we went to film in a real, functioning hospital. We felt as
though this would be the best possible location to increase the verisimilitude of the film, even
though the process of gaining access and permission to film in the hospital was a lengthy and time
consuming process. I feel as though this effort was definitely worth it as we have been rewarded
with very professional and authentic looking scenes. This is something that does actually follow the
conventions of a science fiction film, especially those with a psychological element.

This is something that does actually follow the conventions of a science fiction film, especially those with a psychological element. We do often see
hospitals used as they are one of the most technologically advanced setting that a film could be set, this is due to the fact that in the real world
there is a huge demand for health based technology as we all accept and adjust to the fact that the average length of life is increasing. However, I
have broken the conventional use of a hospital by neglecting all of the equipment available and showing a more basic meeting between the patient
and the psychologist. This was done to show how mental health has been neglected an issue that most science fiction films do not tend to focus
on. My trailer has shown a common theme throughout, by using general conventions of both trailers and the science fiction genre but changing
them just enough to portray something original, whilst still being recognisable to the audience.

A science fiction film that is also set in a hospital is the 2001 film Final by Scott Campbell. The difference here would be the fact that this film
leans more towards a less subtle psychological element this means that their shots are much more dingy and grainy. Instead, we went for a
more modern feeling, that will connect to the audience in a more emotional way as they will be able to picture the last time they went to a hospital.

Our research into hospitals was quite extensive, as we had to be sure that we would be able to gain access and permission. Finally we settled on
the local Heartlands Hospital, a location which turned out to be very advantageous as during test screenings our audiences were impressed with
the fact that we used a real hospital in the filming.
 SPECIAL EFFECTS/LIGHTING
This screenshot represents how we used special effects in our film trailer to explore the
science fiction element in more detail. We were sure from the get go that we would be sticking
to the science fiction genre, this came from two main influences; both members in my group
had a preconceived interest in the genre, but also our subject teacher told us that this would
be the most challenging genre to try and represent and we wanted a challenge.

As you can see from the screenshot, we used an animated CGI effect during our trailer this
was to represent the point at which our protagonist travels back in time to try and fulfil his
quest. We knew that we would have to do something impressive with this aspect as it would be one of the biggest elements of science fiction
within our trailer this presented an opportunity that we would have to perfect.

Obviously, this is a convention of the science fiction genre that we have used, but we decided to try and make it seem a bit more original as this
animation of passing through time and space has been used, recycled and even parodied over the years. We decided that we would use the
colour green for our animation as it was one that we had not seen used before; also, we used a video filter in the form of the contrast control to
make the time portal seem even more original as we didnt want to completely stick the convention as we had concerns that this would bore our
audience.

An example of a real media text that used this animation is the 2012 Dr Who film by Michael Ryan. This film uses the iconic scene from the
television series where The Doctors Tardis travels through time and space to reach a new destination; using a similar animation allows the
audience to instantly recognise that this is a science fiction film. This is important as it could attract an audience that could potentially be huge as
there is quite a large following for science fiction films in modern media as the convergence of special effects and CGI has allowed for much more
complex scenes.
CAMERA ANGLES DUTCH TILT
This screenshot illustrates the interesting choice of camera angles used within my trailer to
convey different meanings to the audience. In this case, I have decided to use a Dutch tilt to
confuse and disorientate the audience. This is an important thing to do considering that from
the beginning we have been sure that we would be implementing a heavy psychological
element to compliment the science fiction genre of my film trailer.

The Dutch tilt is not usually used in films in general, never mind the science fiction genre
itself, meaning that we are breaking conventions of modern media by simply using this type
of camera angle. This is due to the fact that directs do not usually want to disorientate their audiences; this fits into the complexity of our society
of spectacle (Debord, 1967) media landscape. This implies that directors would rather keep their audiences engaged with the action and
spectacle that is being shown on the screen. By going against this convention we are actively working against this concept, showing our
audience that we care about the message our film sends, and that we are trying to create a deeper meaning to our film as opposed to simply
showing visually satisfying scenes.

A film that uses the Dutch tilt perfectly is The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a 2012 film by Marc Webb. Although this could be argued to be a
spectacle film as it relies heavily on CGI and action filled scenes to please its audience, the film does also give deeper meanings. This can be
seen in a shot where Spider-Man is testing our his abilities whilst in a confused and emotional state during this montage we see a series of
Dutch tilt shots. This disorientates the audience and gives them the ability to empathise with Spider-Man as they too feel some confusion about
what is going on. I do not feel disappointment at the fact that my film trailer is part of a small group of films that defy conventions of camera
angles.

My research into the postmodern exposed the concept of a society of spectacle, a theory by Debord in his book A Society of Spectacle
published in 1967. This theory stems from Karl Marxs work in the field of Marxism that suggests there are different groups within society that
are separated by class. The Society of Spectacle suggests that audiences are now only interested in the action and visual pleasure of films.
 CHARACTERS/PROPS CHILD ACTOR (MENTAL
HEALTH)
This shot shows how we used mental health within our film trailer to create a theme and focus on
this particular issue. This was something that we did to subvert the genre as there are quite a
few films out there that focus on mental health and its implications within society; highlighting a
child within the view of mental health was an aspect of our film trailer that we could advertise as
completely unique. Also shown in the shot is a prop in the form of a needle making it seem
much more real to the audience as they see this child medicating himself.

Using children as the main actor within a film is unique enough as most blockbuster films tend to
try and use bigger Hollywood actors to headline their films as this would typically bring in a
audience. This means that we have gone against typical bigger
movie conventions by using a child actor another large factor that subverts our genre and
creates a film that is very unique. Bringing in one of the broader themes in our film, mental health is a concept that we brought in to compliment the
genres that we have focused on, primarily science fiction but also psychological. This is a genre that does often show the use of drugs and medication
to treat mental illnesses, so by using the needle that can be seen in the screenshot above, we have followed the conventions of the mental health
subgenre. I felt as though we had been creative enough by ensuring that the character with mental health problems is a child so sticking to this
convention to make it clear to the audience was important.

A film, although very different to ours, that does this very well is Fight Club. Their portrayal of mental health is very insightful and gives an interesting
view on how mental health is handled within society. The whole film is a metaphor for how we find it difficult to decipher and interpret mental health as
the audience do not know until the end of the film that the protagonist is suffering from mental health issues.

My research into mental health was quite detailed as I looked into it on a deeper level whilst making my moodboard. I found that 1 in 4 people suffer
from mental health issues at some point in their life, a statistic that is shocking. I also found that there is actually a large proportion of sufferers that are
children, which will ensure that my film is relevant and will appear contemporary to society.
 LIGHTING BLUE (SCI-FI GENRE)
The lighting we used in our trailer was conventional of the science fiction genre. We decided that
we would include the lighting element as it can convey a lot of information to the audience whilst
not taking much time to process. This was done using special lights that are coloured blue to
give the effect that the scene is shot in an alternate reality. The main two themes that we thought
that the lighting should represent is the science fiction element and the element of mental health
that we have tried to show throughout.

It was very useful to use this blue lighting as it combined the two aspects we were looking at
as blue is a colour often used within science fiction as it is quite a futuristic colour, especially when it is shown as quite fluorescent like the blue we used
in our film trailer. The colour blue is often used within the science fiction genre due to the fact that it has big connections to technology as most electric
gadgets use blue lights within them. However, it could be argues that the colour blue has a greater connection to the aspect of mental health as this is a
colour heavily associated and used to depict mental illnesses. One of the biggest problems concerning mental health within the US is depression a
mental condition which even today could be referred to as the blues, showing just how clear the connection between this colour and aspect is. This
also links into the previous slide which shows our child actor who is being effected by mental health issues the blue lighting reinforces this unique idea
and adds to the verisimilitude and symbolic connotations of the text.

A film which often uses the colour blue is Star Wars: The Force Awakens a film where the colour blue is used in an interesting way due to its work to
actively change the connotations of the colour. In the star wars films the colour blue is used to represent consciousness, intellect and protection a far
cry from the usual depressive and saddened meaning. The star wars franchise is perhaps the most popular example of a science fiction film and their
use of the colour blue shows how relevant the colour is to the genre in general. I feel as though our use of the colour blue differs quite greatly as we
use shadows and darkness along with the colour blue as you can see in the image above to create a scene where the light highlights certain elements
of the set in this case the child.
 SPECIAL EFFECTS/CHARACTERS - CLONING
As our film was of the genre of science fiction we knew from the beginning that we would be
relying on special effects to be creating a realistic representation of the genre. To do this we
used the technique of cloning to show a character in the same scene in two different
positions this was vital to our plot and narrative whilst also making the audience wonder
why they have seen the character twice. In our film trailer, the two characters represent the
same character from a couple of months apart as the character closest to the viewer has
travelled from the future.

We created this scene during the post production stage obviously, as we did use the same
actor for both of the characters. To do this, we shot the scene twice without moving the camera, once with the actor behind the car and another
time with the actor opening the door to the house; finally we layered the two shots over each other to create one frame with half of each of the two
original frame visible. This is a shot that adds a lot to the film trailer as it highlights the special effects we have used to create our film trailer this
is obviously something we would have needed to focus on as our chosen genre was science fiction.

A film that does this really well that comes to mind when considering a single actor playing two different characters within the same production is
the 2015 film Legend. In this film Tom Hardy plays both of the Kray twins, with just a different outfit and style to separate the two characters. Due
to their higher budget they were able to use CGI to create scenes where the two characters physically interacted such as a fight scene; however,
as interesting as this may have been we did not plan for scenes like this so it didnt become a problem.

My research into creating this shot was solely based on how to use special effects and tools within my video editing software to impose these two
shots together. I primarily used my subject teacher to help with directions of which tools to use and also looked back on my previous preliminary
tasks to refresh my memory about what I learned in my initial research into this type of special effects.
NARRATIVE/CHARACTERS VILLAIN/HERO
Looking into recent films and thinking about the characters that they have used and how
the relationship between these characters are constructed, we decided to change this
theme up a bit and challenge the conventions of characters. To do this we have a dramatic
change that occurs at the end of our film trailer, where it is hinted to the audience that
perhaps the antagonist who has been a mystery thus far, the person killing the childs
parents, has actually been the child all along. This is something that is not done very often
within films as people usually like to know the characters personalities from the beginning
of the film and would not expect them to change this dramatically.

I thought that it would be very beneficial to subvert the genre and the conventions of films in general by ensuring that the audience would realise
that our protagonist is also our antagonist. This took a lot of consideration but during the planning stage we realised that this would be the best
possible way to create an interesting film that we could easily weave into the basis of the narrative we had preconceived. Weaving this into our film
was something that we were very proud of as we have created a narrative that is truly unique and against the normal conventions of genre, whilst
also not upsetting the audience and their expectations too much.

A film which does a similar type of this is the 1999 film Fight Club where the protagonist finds a partner who he believes becomes more and more
evil over time, hatching plans that are more and more violent. In a sudden twist of narrative we find out that the man who has became blinded by his
power was actually the same person as the protagonist all alone making him both the protagonist and the antagonist.

Looking into researching this topic and how changing the roles of some character types could effect my production I came across a previously
studied critic, Propp. This critic believes that every media text consists of the same set of characters; using this as a template I set out to mix some
of the descriptions he gave of characters into multiple characters, creating a much more interesting set of characters.
QUESTION 2

How effective is the combination of

your main product and ancillary
texts?
FILM MAGAZINE FRONT COVER
Authentic
Empire
Front Cover

My Empire
Magazine
Front Cover
THE ROLE OF MAGAZINES
Magazines play a large role in the advertising of films, especially for fans who like to be more
informed about a film before they take the trip to the cinema. This process is mutually beneficial for
the larger magazines such as Empire as it gives both the film company and the magazine potential to
make profit.
The magazine is able to write articles about new and contemporary films which will bring in an
audience and in most cases they will be allowed to view the film before the public and create a review;
this will further increase the popularity of the magazine and if this deal is an exclusive one this creates
a Unique Selling Point (USP) for the magazine which will further increase their viewership.
On the other hand, the film company will also benefit from the added publicity of being featured within
the magazine. The review of the film from independent and experienced reviewers will boost the films
popularity in most cases as the company would ensure that these reviews are good. Being featured in
a magazine is in essence free advertising as all the company will need to do I terms of contributions
would be perhaps arranging an interview with the lead actor and supplying some images and
screenshots from the film itself. As long as people continue to read magazines, whether this is
physical copies of online renditions, film companies will continue to try and get their films featured
simply for the free publicity it brings.
FILM POSTER

Authentic Film Poster

My Film Poster
HOW THE FILM INDUSTRY USES FILM POSTERS
TO ADVERTISE THEIR MEDIA PRODUCT
Film posters are a great way of advertising films as they are usually quite low cost and can be seen by
quite a large audience. Film posters can utilize any space they wish to, without the need for technology
or a device to feedback video. This can be seen in most city centres where the side of buildings are
plastered with huge posters advertising a film posters are even placed on the side of busses which
means that a huge amount of the population will come into contact with this poster at some point.
Posters are known for being very informative rather than drawing interest to a film this is due to the
fact that in our media saturated society it is hard to get people excited by just showing them an image.
Posters work best when they give away key information, this can be in terms of; actors names, release
date, genre, production information, title, age rating. All of this information is essential to a viewer to
create the potential for interest in a film. The pure fact that film companies can spend relatively nothing
on this form of advertising and still raise awareness for their film is something quite important and
impressive within our modernist society.
This practice is one that has survived since the beginning of film, when audiences would have seen
these posters in broadsheet newspapers as the people rich enough to read these newspapers would be
the people with enough money to see the film itself. I feel like this is an important aspect of film making
and advertising that has stood the test of time to produce an important and yet cost-effective way of
advertising a film.
HOW DO THESE TASKS RELATE TO MY TRAILER?
MY FILM MAGAZINE FRONT COVER
The biggest and most important part of advertising a film is answering the following question
what makes this film interesting and different to what I have seen before?. This is a question
that my group kept in mind when creating the concept for our film and we are very proud of the
fact that our film can definitively be labelled as one which has subverted the genre. The main
feature for this would be the fact that we have used a child as our main actor, something which
we have decided to base a lot of our advertising on as this really does tell the audience that we
have created something uniquely different.
The front cover will bring a lot of publicity to a film that we have decided will be made by an
independent film company. This meant that we were more open to creating a film that had the
intentions we set out to display, but came with a much lower budget and thus meant that we
would not have the money for a huge advertising campaign. This means that we would have
gained a lot of publicity making it onto the front cover of Empire magazine, a feature that would
most likely have boosted our sales figures hugely in the long run as more and more people
would have been able to view our film. Looking at the front cover and the caliber of the films
that are shown alongside our film, it is clear to see that there is a very high standard for the
quality of the films shown on and in the magazine simply being amongst those names with a
review from a top critic within the film industry would have been perhaps the most valuable
piece of advertising at our disposal.
MY FILM POSTER
As mentioned earlier within this evaluation, rather than drum up lots of excitement around a film,
posters are supposed to inform people of key aspects of the film and push them towards the
harder pieces of advertising such as the trailer itself. For this reason we decided that we would
focus more on the mystery element, as without giving much away in terms of the narrative or
story, this may push our audience towards watching the trailer which would be hugely beneficial in
terms of bringing in an audience.
Our film poster shows a partial silhouette of the main character standing in front of an asylum, this
is the mystery element that will draw people into looking deeper into our film. To contrast this
greyscale colour scheme used for the background, we used a blue tint for the title as it made it
stand out a lot more the idea behind this was that if the audience of the poster were going to
draw any piece of information from the poster the most important piece would be the title.
In other posters a lot more emphasis is placed on the actors for the film, but as we have not been
able to use a famous actor there would not be much point in emphasizing the name very much as
the audience would not recognize the name. For this reason we have made it so that the main
actors name is shown but is in grey as not to draw attention away from more important factors
such as the title of the film, the production company or even the tag line.
WHAT CONVENTIONS HAVE I DECIDED TO USE,
OR NOT USE?
MY FILM MAGAZINE FRONT COVER
I also decided that to stick with the general theme of Empire magazine, I would add in a Banner/Header.
After doing some research and looking into many different examples of empire magazine, I realized that the
header is usually the tag line for the film it is highlighting in this case that was the phrase How long is
forever. This is something that we have conformed to as we believe that it is only helpful to our magazine.
This phrase is vague and will subsequently make the readers of the magazine gain even more interest about
our film specifically, making them look more closely at the articles that would be available about our article
and thus cause more people to likely go and watch our film the ultimate goal of a film trailer.
To stick with the theme of the magazine, I decided that I would mostly talk about films from the genre of the
film being featured that month; for this reason all of the sell and cover lines are oriented towards science
fiction films: Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and Transformers. These are all quite notable films that already
have a large following as they have been franchised. I used this convention as it made it possible for me to
make the magazine look more realistic that it possibly might have lacked.
One way in which I defied conventions was using a child as the main image. This is something that it not
usually done even when a film does consist of a very child based cast; looking at examples of magazine front
covers I thought that this would make our magazine a lot more unique whilst also sticking to the typical way
in which the main image is presented. I ensured that this image was unique but did not want to take away
from the verisimilitude.
MY FILM POSTER
The title of the film is also something that we wanted to make sure stands out to the audience if they look
at the film poster from far away. The main reason for doing this is to build awareness for our film it
doesnt matter how good a film looks, if the audience cannot find the film or easily gain access to the name
of the film then it would have been a waste of time. The main technique we used was changing the colour
of the font so that it heavily contrasted with the background image which we decided to portray in black
and white. This is a convention we have stuck to as it is simply useful.
We have made sure that we have included the name of the actor in big letter across the front of the film
poster. This is one convention that can be seen in slightly higher budget productions as the inclusion of a
big actor can make an audience much more likely to watch a film for this reason it is very important to
ensure that the audience will be able to see the name of the actor from a distance.
Firstly, the main image that can be seen on the poster is a building that is portrayed within the trailers as
an asylum for young people. This is a building that in itself if very interesting and will draw peoples
attention to the poster; however, what most people will notice is the fact that there is the silhouette of a
child standing in front of the asylum. This is the main piece of subversion of our genre as there are not
many films that choose to realistically depict mental illness in children. Together, these two images present
a juxtaposition and will subsequently draw in an audience to the poster who will want to look deeper into
the meaning of the poster. We have also decided to make the background image black and white as this
allows us to create a form of contrast between the coloured film name and the plain looking background.
We went against the convention of using adults in the poster for the same reason we did in our magazine
front cover, to be unique and show off our unique selling point.
QUESTION 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

Young Adults
Ages: 15-29

Both Males and Females

SHOPPING
The typical young adult is a person who is just finding freedom and will therefore be looking to find
themselves. In my opinion, this leads to them shopping for things that are a bit more unique as they would
like to find their voice in the crowd. This is why I believe that contrary to popular opinion, the younger
generation are actually those who look for deeper meanings in films and other media texts.
This leads to the places where I feel that our film would be advertised and sold after the initial release of the
film to the cinema. Online streaming services such as Netflix and NowTV are becoming more and more
popular, especially with the growth of these services. The age range with the most Netflix viewers is actually
mostly within the range of 18-29 years old very similar to the age range that we have chosen for our film.
For these reasons I feel that it would be hugely beneficial to advertise and sell our film online.
Our age range are also one of the largest contributors to shopping on the high street as they seem to be the
most active. Again, this would mean that advertising our films in perhaps city centers would be the best
way; this could be on the sides of busses and on billboards in the city center.
TV/ FILM
The TV and film habits of our target audience are quite broad as they are not yet old
enough to have tried out all of the different genres enough to want to stick to just one
genre.
For this reason, our film dives into many different genres which makes it a lot more
interesting to the people watching; this is due to the fact that no matter what genre they
enjoy, or could possibly enjoy. The biggest element is undoubtedly the science fiction
genre which we have used conventions of throughout due to the recent success in this
genre regarding an age group very similar to ours. An example of a science fiction film
that has done quite well recently is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a film that earned a
huge $2,000,000,000 worldwide this is an example of a film that was targeted at a
similar target audience due to things such as the characters and the narrative so we
believed that we would also do well aiming science fiction at a similar age group.
Using science fiction also allows us to look into a more action based film as the special
effects element opened up opportunities that we have taken, such as the car crash
scene, the scene where the child is holding a knife towards his parents and the scene
where he smashes their windows. This was very important to our film as we have
became a society of spectacle as coined by Debord, who believes that we are
becoming a society that cares more about the physical visuals on the screen rather
than the meaning behind what is going on.
To contrast this we have also included a heavy psychological element which is also a
genre that this age group tends to enjoy this is shown by the success of films such as
Split and Shutter island. These films are popular with teenagers as they often show
people going through problems that they may be having, however dramatized they are
for the sake of the cinematic elements.
 ACTORS We also wanted the
audience to connect
We made our main actor a with the
child as this would allow psychologist, to we
our audience to connect ensured that the
better with him. Empathy is actor playing him
very important to our was not old, and
production due to the huge quite close to the
psychological elements age range of our
that are involved target audience.
This means that the
target audience will
be able to empathise
with all of the
characters and not
A similar film that does this would be Childs Play, where a child is facing psychological just the child
problems because of his toy. Within this film there are many questions asked about the creating a film with a
treatment of the boy, and as he is so young nobody believes him or acts to help him in deeper meaning.
his time of need. Similarly, our protaginst feels like he is misunderstood by society even
at a young age
 A film that uses a location similar to ours would the 1982 film The Poltergeist. The
majority of these scene are shown to be in the suburbs, where most of our target
LOCATION audience would live as a majority of them will still be at home whilst receiving
The location we used was one education. This helps the audience to empathise with our characters as they can
that most people in our target easily step into their shoes due to the fact that they could go home that night to a
audience would be able to relate similar place.
to, a suburban area with working
to middle class houses. This
ensures that people appreciate
the verisimilitude of the film and
will be able to empathise with the
characters within the narrative.
This is important especially for
the type of film are creating as it
definitely has quite a large
psychological element to it this
means that without the
audiences empathy and The verisimilitude of the film trailer is increased due to the fact that
sympathy with the characters, this was shot in a real life suburban location. This is important for a
the narrative wouldn'tt make as science fiction film as if it is too far fetched the effects of using
much of an impact relatable characters is lessened.
 SPECIAL EFFECTS This is something that we think
our audience will appreciate as
they will know we worked
During our preliminary
independently on a small
research, we found
budget but have made room for
that a large proportion
impressive looking special
of the students we
effects. This shot added nothing
asked would like to
to the budget and yet definitely
see us use some
still adds to the element of
special effects in the
science fiction that is present
trailer, as this is a
throughout.
typical convention of
the genre they would
expect to see.
Sticking to a small
budget meant that we
could not be overly Here we used one actor in two different shots and then edited the frames together
complicated with our into one shot showing the character twice. I feel like this is a professional looking
special effects but this shot which is very rewarding considering we dont have a large budget for special
scene worked well. effects and editing software.
 CAR SCENES
A film popular with the age range
We also received feedback in of our target audience is the
our preliminary investigation Need for Speed Film by Scott
that people like science Waugh. For this reason we
fiction films with a bit more decided that it would definitely be
action in. For this reason we wise to add in scenes where
decided to include a scene similar things happen to this film
where a car can be seen as it has obviously made a
racing down a suburban road success of itself, making over
before crashing. $200,000,000 in the box office.
The idea for the car crash came
We included a loud sound effect and the use of red lighting to make the scene as it was the best way to create
feel quite full on. Also, judging by our research into our target audience they an action packed car scene
liked fast paced shots that build up tension, for this reason we split this scene without needed a huge budget or
up into multiple shots so we could cut from shots that last just a second. This unattainable CGI effects.
has the effect of bombarding the audiences senses, creating a psychologically
more thrilling scene.
ACTION
Linking back to the shot before, we were told that our target audience would like to see a lot of action
and special effects in our film trailer to make it interesting and authentic to the genre. For this reason we
decided that we would add fire in, as it gives us an interesting looking set of lighting within the trailer
whilst also making the trailer look to be more action packed and dangerous.

Adding the fire to scene

made our trailer look like
the film will also have a
lot of action and special
effects, which given the
time would definitely
have been the case as I
my opinion these are the shots that look the best within the trailer. Scenes such as this one would drum
up a lot of excitement and would definitely draw people to the film itself. This is something that we have
definitely tried to implement into our trailer to cater for our target audience as mentioned before Debord
believes we are a society of spectacle so by adding in scenes like this, we will not only cater for people
looking for a deeper meaning but also for people who are just watching the film for the visuals.
TITLES
We have also added smoke onto all of our titles to add to the mystery of the trailer. This is something that
fits well with the film; the influence from this came from the Fast and the Furious franchise, where they
often use titles with smoke over them to add the effect of some mystery and uncertainty.

One of the other comments we received was that we should definitely include titles into our film trailer as
it is a key method of narrating the story, whilst not giving away too much of the narrative. This is most
likely the main reason why our target audience would like this, personally being in this age range, I can
confidently say it annoys me when films give away way too much of the film within the trailer itself.
 POWER BALANCES
Perhaps the most interesting In this scene we see how the child is holding a knife to his parents the
concept that we explored in context is that he is trying to save them by not allowing them to leave the
relation to completely house. Giving the child power like this is something quite original which
catering for our target means that it will interest our audience.
audience would be the
power balances within the
film. This was mentioned In
our preliminary investigation
into what our target
audience would desire and
we asked them whether they
thought this would be
interesting, we received a
very positive response so This is done throughout the film as the child is the one who has the power to
we decided that we would save the lives of the parents. Moreover, the child is also the one who has
implement it into our trailer murdered the parents in the first place which obviously hugely offsets the
throughout. audiences expectation of the balance of power.
 How did you use
media technologies in
the construction and
research, planning and
evaluation stages?
PLANNING AND RESEARCH
Online Resources
Youtube
Digital Film
ONLINE RESOURCES
ONLINE RESOURCES
Online resources played a huge part on our planning and preparation as they enabled us
to look into other similar films and peoples views on them. Dan Gillmors concept of
WeMedia and OReillys Web 2.0 suggest that the way that we view things have changed
over the years due to the proliferation of journalism and personal journalism in particular.
More specifically, the idea of web 2.0 allows for the sharing of opinion and collaborations
have been made much easier by the internet.
A brilliant example of this is the website IMdB which is a majority community led website,
where you can find both contributed information and reviews from other regular people.
This allows for easy access to thousands of opinions that can help shape the form of a
film.
My group used websites like this to create a concept for our film using the opinions of
people we identified to be in our target audience. Looking at these reviews, we were able
to gauge what they found exciting and what they would improve to make the current
standard of films better.
YOUTUBE
Youtube is a website that has been incredibly successful over the past decade. With
millions upon millions of users visiting the site everyday to view content that has been
posted by average everyday people and traditional media outlets like the BBC.
We used the website during the planning stage in two main ways. The first was looking at
comments under recent science fiction films to decide what people liked the look of and
what they thought the trailers lacked. We also used the website to look at other
productions of media trailers, at both university and A-Level standard. This gave us an
insight into the quality that would be expected to gain top marks, but also gave us some
inspiration as to what was possible for a group of people our age with a similar budget.
I believe that Youtube, being an example of OReillys Web 2.0, is one of the most
valuable resources within our modern society. This is due to the fact that it gives ordinary
people the chance to be able to share their content with a huge audience this means
that people who would not have regularly had the means or connections to show a large
audience their content are given the opportunity.
DIGITAL FILM
This is a very broad technology but I felt as though leaving it out would be an
injustice as it has played a huge role in forming the ideas and concepts for my
film trailer.
Firstly, one of the largest inspirations for my film trailer was the film The
Butterfly Effect, this was a film that I would most likely not have been exposed
to if it were not for digital film; the reason for this is the fact that I saw this on the
online streaming service NowTV, which would not be possible without digital
video.
This means that the largest inspiration for my film was made available to me by
using a form of digital video.
CONSTRUCTION
Camera
Editing Software
CAMERA
CAMERA
The first technology used to create my film opening must be the
camera. As I had used this in my GCSE Media Studies coursework, I
was quite familiar with this piece of equipment. However, we used a
lot more of the features on the camera this time around as we had to
ensure the shots looked perfect and that we were using the camera to
the best of its abilities. We did things such as balance the hue and
saturation to ensure the shot looked right and ensured the colours
were balanced. We did come across some problems with the camera
which led us to have to learn about it even more, looking at an online
manual. This problem was concerning the focus which I feel me and
my group are very good at controlling now due to having to learn more
about this particular feature.

The camera we used was a Canon Legria HF200. This is a midlevel

camcorder camera, which films in 720p. This was the format of video
which we used in the final cut of the film as it was very good quality
without having to be a huge file size. I feel very confident using this
camera now
EDITING SOFTWARE FINAL CUT EXPRESS
EDITING SOFTWARE FINAL CUT EXPRESS
The piece of technology which I have improved the most by using this year is Final Cut Express,
which is the programme we used to create the trailer itself on the schools Mac computers. We
did use this program last year to create our film opening but we did not explore many of the
features and possibilities that were available to us using the program.
The list of features we used this year are extensive, so I will discuss just the two main features.
The first feature would be the adding of colour correction to our trailer. To create a contrast
between past and present, we used a brown tint that made the footage look more aged and
distorted. This contributed to the audiences understanding of what is in the past and what is in
the present; using this tool was beneficial and easy once we were shown how to use it.
Finally, we used the wireframe tool to crop two frames together into one frame. This allowed us
to use cloning within our trailer, where we were able to show the same character in two different
points on the shot. We did this by filming the character in two different locations without moving
the camera and then using the wireframe tool to edit these together.
EVALUATION
The blog Itself
THE BLOG
THE BLOG
The blog is an example of Web 2.0 as multiple people can cooperate and collaborate on
projects. As we posted posts and drafts of our trailer on the blog we would receive either
comments or small pointers such as sentence starters within our posts to enable us to
fully explore the post and take it as far as possible.
This was very beneficial as people within our class and within our sixth form could look at
the blog and leave comments on the posts such as little suggestions about the trailer
throughout the different stages of the draft.
This developed our understanding of the trailer and what our target audience liked and
disliked, this opinion helped us evaluate our work and gave us the possibility to even go
back and edit some parts we felt we could improve on.
We also used YouTube in a similar way but as I have already mentioned the site I felt it
unnecessary to explain again; however, YouTube worked in very much the same way as
we could look at comments and suggestions from other people around the world.